1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display panel, and more particularly, to a plasma display panel which can be easily manufactured and has improved brightness and reduced power consumption.
2. Discussion of the Background
Conventional cathode-ray tube display devices have been recently replaced in the consumer electronics market by plasma display panels (PDPs). Plasma display panels have a discharge gas contained between two substrates. Each substrate has a plurality of electrodes, including address electrodes and sustain electrodes, formed thereon. A discharge voltage is applied to sustain electrodes to excite discharge gas. The excited discharge gas generates ultraviolet rays that excite a phosphor layer, and the excited phosphor layer emits visible light to form the desired image on the PDP.
A conventional AC-type PDP 10, as shown in FIG. 1, includes an upper plate 50, on which an image is displayed, and a lower plate 60 coupled to the upper substrate 50 in parallel. Sustain electrode pairs 12 having an X electrode 31 and a Y electrode 32 are arranged on a front substrate 11 of the upper plate 50. Address electrodes 22 are arranged on a rear substrate 21 of the lower plate 60 and face the front substrate 11, on which the sustain electrode pairs 12 are arranged. Address electrodes 22 extend in a first direction and cross with the X electrode 31 and the Y electrode 32, which both extend in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction A first dielectric layer 15 is arranged on the front substrate 11 to cover the sustain electrode pairs 12 and a second dielectric layer 25 is arranged on the rear substrate 21 to cover the address electrodes 22. A protective layer 16 of MgO is arranged on the rear surface of the first dielectric layer 15. Barrier ribs 30 are arranged on the second dielectric layer 25 to maintain a discharge distance between the front substrate and rear substrate and prevent electro-optical cross-talk between adjacent discharge cells. Red phosphor layers, green phosphor layers, and blue phosphor layers 26 are coated on both side surfaces of the barrier ribs 30 and on the first dielectric layer 25 between barrier ribs 30.
The X electrode 31 includes transparent electrode 31a and bus electrode 31b, and the Y electrode 32 includes transparent electrode 32a and bus electrode 32b. The space formed where an X electrode 31, a Y electrode 32, and an address electrode 22 cross with each other defines a discharge unit such as unit discharge cell 70. The transparent electrode 31a and transparent electrode 32a are made of a transparent conductive material, which can generate discharge and does not prevent light emitted from the phosphor layers 26 from being directed toward the front substrate 11, such as Indium Tin Oxide (ITO). However, a transparent conductor such as ITO may have a large resistance. Accordingly, if the sustain electrodes are formed of only the transparent material, a voltage loss and driving power may increase, and the response speed may be reduced. Therefore, the bus electrode 31b may be formed of metal with a narrow line width coupled with the transparent electrode 31a, and bus electrode 32b may be formed of metal with a narrow line width coupled with the transparent electrode 32a. 
However, a sustain electrode including a bus electrode and a transparent electrode may be expensive and time-consuming to produce since the transparent electrode material may be expensive and separate steps may be required for coupling the bus electrode and the transparent electrode.
In order to solve these problems, a sustain electrode having only a bus electrode has been developed. However, since the discharge is not generated well using the standard bus electrodes alone, brightness of the light emitted from the panel may be reduced and driving power consumption may increase.